I like to think about how far education might come if instruction is built more around Dewey’s words and less around standardized testing. We must often build instruction upon the needs of our departments/schools rather than the needs of our learners. As you begin to pull everything together for your project, remember Dewey’s image: the child with a question of his own, seeking answers. Will that describe your learners?

In an idealistic way, is that the basis of evaluation? Did the child have a question and seek the answer? One of my teachers once asked: “If you aren’t going to evaluate it, why teach it?” It’s a simple enough question. And it seems logical. But what is evaluation?

Finally, don’t be afraid to fail. As we all know, we learn an awful lot by making mistakes (although we still feel awful). To promote our ability to rationalize, I’ve added a fascinating article — “The Importance of Failure” — so that we all appreciate what a service we give to humanity when we screw something up. Seriously, I feel Unsworth is also warning us not to get caught up in a euphoria brought on by change, without truly assessing where that change is leading. Is the emperor wearing cloths or isn’t he? How do we know for sure, especially at a distance?

Learning is much more effective if the learner’s brain knows why what you’re about to talk about matters. The benefit and/or reason why you should learn something needs to come before the actual content. Otherwise, the learner’s brain gets to the end of what you’re telling them and says, “Oh, NOW you tell me. If you’d said that earlier, I would have paid more attention…” This process of not-paying-attention is not completely within the learner’s conscious control so, like I said, even if the person is motivated to learn this thing, their brain can still tune out during specific parts that don’t start with a compelling benefit.

Technique

To find a “meaningful benefit”, play the “Why? Who Cares? So What?” game with someone else. Describe the thing you’re trying to explain, to which the other person asks, “Why?” Provide an answer, to which the person then asks, “Who cares?”. Provide an answer, to which the person asks, “So?” At this point, when you’re nearly ready to kill them for not getting it, you probably have the thing you should have said instead of whatever you said first (and second). The most compelling and motivating reason/benefit is almost always the thing you say only after you’ve answered at least three “Yeah, but WHY do I care?” questions.

Suggestion

When designing your courses provide a meaningful benefit for each topic, in the form of “why you should care about this” scenario.

Learning is much more effective if the learner’s brain knows why what you’re about to talk about matters. The benefit and/or reason why you should learn something needs to come before the actual content. Otherwise, the learner’s brain gets to the end of what you’re telling them and says, “Oh, NOW you tell me. If you’d said that earlier, I would have paid more attention…” This process of not-paying-attention is not completely within the learner’s conscious control so, like I said, even if the person is motivated to learn this thing, their brain can still tune out during specific parts that don’t start with a compelling benefit.

Technique

To find a “meaningful benefit”, play the “Why? Who Cares? So What?” game with someone else. Describe the thing you’re trying to explain, to which the other person asks, “Why?” Provide an answer, to which the person then asks, “Who cares?”. Provide an answer, to which the person asks, “So?” At this point, when you’re nearly ready to kill them for not getting it, you probably have the thing you should have said instead of whatever you said first (and second). The most compelling and motivating reason/benefit is almost always the thing you say only after you’ve answered at least three “Yeah, but WHY do I care?” questions.

education slate

Open Culture provides an impressive collection of the educational podcasts and videos, as well as full online course from colleges and universities around the globe. Spend a little time with this resource if you are looking for multimedia materials to augment your online or classroom based courses.

• Free OpenSource Software Mac User Group – this site contains portable versions of: Firefox, Thunderbird, Adium (IM client), AbiWord (word processing program), Nvu (web authoring system), Sunbird (cross platform calendar system), Cyberduck FTP browser), Check Off (to-do manager), Gimp, Newsspeak, Inkscape, VLC (video stream and multimedia player), Audacity, OpenOffice, RSSOwl, Feed, X-Chat Aqua, Camino (web browser), Vienna (newsreader), Celtx (Screenwriting and production writer), Safari, Mail, iCal, Addressbook, iChat, and SyncPAppX.Narrative usage tutorials can be found at http://www.freesmug.org/tutorial and video tutorials at http://www.freesmug.org/Video
• Portable Apps – the tools available on this site allow you to carry programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. The site provides you with the following programs: Firefox (web browser), Thunderbird 9email), Sunbird (calendar/tasks), ClamWin (anitvirus), Pidgin (IM), KeePass (password manager), Sudoku (game), CoolPlayer (audio player), OpenOffice, Blender (3D modeling), Dia (diagramming tool), and GIMP (photo & image editor), etc.Help tutorial for installing and running the above listed products can be found at http://portableapps.com/support/portable_apps_suite

Click on the following links to download the Vue and OpenLabyrinth, or to view sample cases.

• Vue Software – concept and content mapping application. (Site offers versions for PCs and Macs)
• OpenLabyrinth – application for designing virtual patient and other decision path activities – (current version available for PC only. According to the presenters a  cross platform version scheduled to be released in December)
  • Virtual patient demos developed with labyrinth
  • Pine (Pathways for Interactive Narrative
    Education) Project – site provides links to medical, patient education, midwifery, interprofessional, nursing, and rural health emergency virtual cases and associated development documents that are available to all site visitors.

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